God’s Reality

Summary

Culture today does not understand what love is. True love is defined by God's Word. Rather than the modern view that sees love as total acceptance no matter what, true love has 3 parts: reason, relationship and responsibility. True love creates covenant community. The Church of Christ governed by love and it ends with each member having the responsibility (and priveledge) of doing God's will. It is the Church that is commissioned with the task of brining all of the world under the reign of love.

Outline

Lk. 10:26 – Jesus was asked about His reading of the Law – His response was “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself” – this was a complete summary of the Law and the prophets.

There is no disconnect in the Bible between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The whole Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The OT was a type and a shadow, and the principles are still with us today.

The supreme desire of our hearts must be to love God – and to please Him.

All of scripture is a redemptive story revealing the love of God saving the world.

Joy comes from knowing God is with us and loves us.

When we fail to please God, we have an advocate – Jesus.

God wants us to have a relationship with Him – Love.

Love needs to be defined.

Culture has watered down many things that are absolutely clear in scripture.

3 Components to God’s love.

Reason – our mind – we need to have a dialogue with God.

Relationship

Responsibility

Isaiah 1:18 – The first step in building a family.

“Come let us reason together…” - God wants to reason with us.

In any kind of a relationship, the first thing we do is reason things out together.

God says that if we will come to Him, He will take our sins away, and if we are obedient we will eat the fruit of the land.

Embodied in love is a moral code.

Biblical love is a lot more in depth than “I love you man.”

Relationship is to relate to someone according to an agreement.

Jer. 29:11 – The thoughts God has for us.

This very language is the language of a relationship – His thoughts toward us is for our future, peace and hope.

Responsibility

There is no greater involvement in our lives than the fact that Jesus came and died for our sins.

Responsibility means to wrap ourselves in the agreement that we agreed upon – we can wrap ourselves in another’s garment – the exchanging of garments.

Christ has clothed us with His glory – we have purpose and self-worth because He has given it to us – it also means we see worth in others.

In Revelation – God desires that we would not be lukewarm but totally passionate for Him. Lukewarm means that we are in the relationship for amusement sake.

God gave us His son to die for us – shows the absoluteness of God’s moral code – justice had to be maintained.

Jesus fulfilled His love responsibility – He clothed himself in His Father’s purposes and went to the cross.

There is no Christianity without sacrifice.

For relationships, there is always sacrifice.

Tickling ears will not get us into God’s reality.

1 Cor. 12:1 – About the gifts of the Spirit.

It is possible to be ignorant of the gifts.

We need all of the gifts active for the body to be healthy.

We need to honor all parts of the body.

We are the body of Christ corporately and members of it individually.

We need to present the bride of Christ to our community by all of us fulfilling our function in His body.

The more excellent way.

Preferring one another in love.

We need to come together to reason, have relationship and to take responsibility.

We have to create authentic family.

The church in general has not been teaching the gospel.

The first official promoting homosexuality was within the church.

If we not who we are supposed to be, then culture will deteriorate.

This is why everything has been redefined in our nation – grace, law, love, Christianity, etc.

The simple approach is to read scripture and see what it says.

Jesus defined the law as love.

It is time to let Jesus speak from His word.

One of the people on FB said that God is genocidal – which means to systematically and without reason to destroy a people group.

The universe is God’s house – men have rebelled against God’s gracious and loving rule, and eventually He will cleanse His house.

God never committed genocide, He executed righteous judgment.

Christians who try to do away with law are trying to get rid of God.

God is a lawgiver.

Grace has given us the ability to follow God all of the days of our lives.